Advocacy

Background on Advocacy

Why is advocacy even necessary?

Historically skin patients in Canada have remained silent and hidden, and as a result skin patients have poorer access to specialists, to treatments and to medications – all of which, if improved, would go a long way to improving the quality of life for millions of Canadians, and would even contribute to the saving of lives.

Isn’t advocacy really radical?

As Canadians, we tend to shy away from the word ‘advocacy’ – somehow we seem to feel that it’s too radical, too noisy, too… unseemly. Perhaps we believe that as skin patients, we don’t deserve any better? But, of course, truly we know we deserve to get the same level of treatment as do all other Canadians- anything less would be discrimination.

So, what is advocacy?

Advocacy is simply about getting relevant information on a given issue to those elected to make decisions about it. The information they need involves both the objective facts and the subjective stories. We’ve supplied the Report Card – the facts. Now we need you to supply the human voice by contacting them and even by sharing your story. You, the patient, are often times the most important and accurate source for this information.

At the CSPA, we believe that if our policy makers really could understand what it feels like to live with a skin disease, they could and would make decisions that would positively affect our lives.

Consider supporting the work of the CSPA with a donation

We are proud to partner with the Canadian Association of Psoriasis Patients